Rider of the Realms (Title in Progress)
by Iron Warriors
Summary: During Eragon's search for a safe home to rebuild the Dragon Riders he stumbles upon the land of Westeros. With the dread of winter on the horizon & the feudal houses vying madly for the Throne, will Eragon survive long enough to unite them against the darkness or will he fall like every honor bound fool to step into Kings Landing? When you play the great game it's "win or die."
1. Chapter 1: Caught in the Kraken's Maw

**Hello everyone, before we begin I have a few things to clarify. To those of you that have been following me from either of my other projects and haven't read both ****The Inheritance Cycle**** and both watched/read ****The Song of Ice and Fire**** series you might want to or otherwise you might not be able to follow along properly and this is only a side project, I'm hoping to get the next chapter of Element Halo out within the next week. This will be taking place one month after Eragon has left Alagaësia to look for the perfect place to set up the Dragon Rider Order and before Joffrey's disastrous wedding to Margaery. **

**My reasons for creating this is 1: because I'm currently binge-watching the entire series of Game of Thrones at the moment and I feel compelled to write something about it. 2: the fact that almost every goddamn Game of Thrones/Inheritance Cycle crossover I've been able to find on this godforsaken site has a gender-bent Eragon or has been dead since the day the first men crossed the arm of Dorne and it is really pissing me off. 3: there is just an extreme lack of fanfiction for the crossover in general and if no one is up for the job then I will be.**

**Just fair warning I haven't read the books for the Inheritance Cycle or Game of Thrones in a very long time, so I will not be the best at writing any of these characters to the letter because as much as I want to be George R.R. Martin I'm not. So certain fan favorites from both series might be WAY out of character but I'm trying my best at getting this to turn out as a good story. I beg of you please don't cut off my head as Joffrey did to Ned if the Imp isn't as witty as he is in the books and show. I'm rather attached to it thank you very much.**

**XXXXXXXX**

"_I've waited for this for so very long," Eragon sighed in bliss as he cuddled closer to the warm naked body next to him in the large bed._

"_You're not the only one," Arya said as she laid her head down upon Eragon's exposed chest, her breasts squishing ever so softly into the side of his body._

"_I want to stay here," Eragon kissed Arya on the top of her head, taking in her sent and closing his eyes._

"_You can't, your journey hasn't ended yet," Arya stated as the room grew so cold that it started to freeze the sweat on his body instantly, something impossible within Ellesméra's powerful wards._

"_Arya?" Eragon asked opening his eyes to find himself in a beaten, bloody set of his trusty dwarven made armor, with a massive furred cloak hung over his shoulders attempting to keep the cold from getting to him and Brisingr held firmly in hand. As he sheathed his blade he looked back up to find himself in the middle of a massive snow-covered field, to his back sat an unbelievably tall wall of ice that stretched as far up as the clouds and as far wide as the eye could see. Curious as he was about the wall of ice, Eragon needed to find a way out of this cold land so he started marching, a blizzard soon falling over him as he walked. _

_Eragon trudged through the blizzard for who knew how long before he came upon a tattered white flag barring the sigil of a grey, snarling wolf head flying alone in his path. The blizzard cleared up as soon as Eragon spotted the flag and a massive battle damaged castle covered in a thick layer of snow was slowly revealed laying ominously before him. Now with a better sight of his surroundings, the plane he was in was littered with the remnants of bone, siege engines fortifications and discarded weapons from a massive battle. At first, Eragon felt dread that something terrible was happening in Alagaësia but the fortress in front of him did not look like any build from his homeland since all the greatest castles had at least some help from magic._

"_Where is this place?" Eragon asked himself as he approached the castle's caved in entrance to the outer wall._

_As Eragon advanced further inside this begotten fortress, more signs of the long over battle is revealed. A sword stuck out of the snowy ground with a white wolf head decorating the pommel of the weapon, a golden hand lay close by in the middle of the courtyard. As he looked into the stable he saw a very small rapier sticking out of a tipped over a wooden box. Advancing into one of the barren snow filled halls the young Dragon Rider found a pin of a golden hand sitting on the lip of a broken window sill. Walking along the walls he spotted a broken chair with wheels at the bottom of one flight of stairs, one of the wheels had been torn off and the thing was flipped over onto its front._

_All of this perplexed Eragon to a great extent. He felt all the things that he'd found were omens of great evil to come but this vision was different from all the others he'd had in his entire life. Those ones were usually pretty to the point but this, this gave him enough for a direction to follow but he had no further details to go off of to plan properly ahead and there was also the fact that he was able to move around the vision as well that confused him._

"_Why am I seeing this?" Eragon whispered to himself, something inside telling him to stay quiet. That was until he heard a dragon's roar above him causing his head to snap up with the speed of an elf. The creature was deathly pale, with bright blue eyes full of malice and hatred. As it got closer unnaturally fast and before its jaws could close on Eragon, everything when black._

**XXXXXXXX**

Eragon sat up in his cot breathing heavy in fear as he looked himself over and found nothing new. The room was empty of all the people that had been there the night before, leaving only empty cots and him within. From what he could tell as he looked through a window on his right was that it was the break of dawn with not a flake of snow for miles in all directions, giving him the slight respite he needed to let out the breath he'd been holding unintentionally.

"_Are you okay, little one?" _Saphira asked, worry felt through their shared connection, obviously feeling the panic that had ran through him when he woke up.

"_I'm fine… I think,"_ Eragon responded as he climbed to his feet explaining his vision to Saphera, making sure to leave out the beginning of his dream as he got dressed into dark blue trousers, simple brown leather jerkin, brown leather boots, and strapped Brisingr to his hip.

"_This news is very disconcerting,"_ Saphira mused as Eragon worked his way to the top deck of the ship.

"Shadeslayer, it is good to see you up and moving so early," Lilmi the captain of the vessel nodded, her black hair tied back in a loose bun, "I trust that your sleep was peaceful."

"Better than my first night on this fine vessel, Captain," Eragon bowed his head in greeting, remembering the time it took him to gain his sea legs. If he remembered correctly Saphira was the one to taunt him for it, "anything I should know about before I begin searching today?"

"We've spotted a storm front moving in from the South West as well as a small land mass due East with what looks like a port, judging by the number of ships around it," the Captain explained shifting her head to the prow of the ship to point it out, "we should be able to dock at it by midday but the storm will hit us first so flying is out of the question."

"Thank you," Eragon said and left the Captain to attend to her duties as he took up point on the prow of the ship.

"_Do you think this might be the place that your vision tried to warn you about?"_ Saphira asked as her beautiful sapphire blue head rose out of the water.

"Maybe," Eragon stated aloud after contemplating it for several minutes.

"_What are you planning?"_ Saphira asked looking Eragon's way as she paddled beside the ship.

"Do a little scouting," Eragon shrugged focusing on the continent in front of him, "you're staying here."

"_What, why?!" _Saphira questioned in shock.

"Dragons were a rarity during the times that they did run free, even in Alagaësia," Eragon reasoned as he scanned the slowly approaching cost line, "so I don't want you to make the natives go into a panic," he only received a pouty look from the big blue dragon, disapproving of him marching off into the unknown without her, "relax I don't plan on going alone."

"_Who do you have in mind?"_

"Kolmas, Thalle, Blödhgarm, Doldusni, and Dimia," Eragon counted the names off on his hand, "what do you think?"

"_Could be better,"_ Saphira snorted water out her nose, _"but they should do."_

"Glad you approve," Eragon laughed, shaking his head in amusement.

"Intercepting ships coming at us from starboard side!" one of the deck hands called out, causing everyone to stop what they were doing and turn to face these new vessels.

The lead ship looked like a galleon if Eragon was correct on the terminology and the six others looked to be simple longships. The galleon had a much longer, slimmer body compared to the elven ship he was on, he also caught a glint of steel coating the prow for ramming purposes. The mast of these new ships bore the image of an upside-down golden squid on the sail. On the deck, Eragon spotted a large number of soldiers were getting ready for a fight. If Eragon counted correctly, there were at least 40 armed soldiers lining the sides and prow of the galleon, the longships, on the other hand, had at least 10 to 20 soldiers lining their sides and prow… most wielding bows in their hands.

"Arrows!" Eragon yelled out to anyone that could hear him as the other vessels aimed at them, "get down!"

Eragon ducked behind the railing of the prow, hoping to have some added protection from the volley of arrows peppering the ship, taking a precaution if any of the arrows fired had runes to negate wards. Thankfully the ones that weren't stopped by the railing were easily forced away with the help of his wards. As the Shadeslayer stood back to his feet to possibly throw spells at their new attackers he saw two of the longships ram themselves into the side of the elven ship, having used their ores to get in close faster than expected. The wood of the ship creaked under the crushing force that the ram impacting the hull caused, yet it did not break the magic-infused wooden structure and instead made the attacking boats slip off and come parallel with the elf ship.

"Draw weapons!" Lilmi ordered to her crew as the attacking ship slung planks between the ships to begin a boarding action.

"_Eragon!" _Saphira exclaimed causing the young dragon rider to turn his attention to her but instead found that the galleon had moved around to the other side and slammed into the hull, this time cracking the wood and deploying a forward plank with sharp spikes to anchor onto the elven ship.

As soon as the second ship attached itself rain started to pour down from the sky and the soldiers aboard all three attacking vessels started to poor on, sword, ax, mace or knife held firmly in hand as they charged onto the elven ship. Eragon drew Brisingr as the first soldier came on him, cutting through the soldier's boiled leather armor and disemboweling the man in one swift stroke of his bright steel blade. Twisting slightly, Eragon dodged an incoming mace meant to cave in his skull, nearly losing his footing from the mixture of blood, seawater, and rain drenching the wood under his feet. Getting within the guard of the raider he thrust upward, burying the blue blade of Brisingr deep into the man's sternum causing the man to spray a little blood onto Eragon's cheek from his open mouth as he bled to death on the sapphire blue blade.

"Shadeslayer, protect the eggs!" Lilmi ordered from across the boat, a pile of bodies at her feet, some having died to her blade or lay lifeless from one spell or another as she pointed to the lower decks that the invaders had just broken into.

Eragon nodded and B-Lined it for the entrance, cutting down several more raiders as he did so. Some of the elves had fallen in the fighting, most having multiple stabs and bludgeoning wounds from multiple different angles. The enemy had the numbers against them but seemed to oddly lack the magic the Eragon would have thought would be common on the battlefield, especially naval warfare. He'd been able to grab Blödhgarm and Kolmas as he fought his way down. The rest of the crew wouldn't hold out for much longer with how many more raiders there were compared to the elven crew but for every one that fell, they had taken six to seven with them before being brought down by the weight of numbers.

"_Saphira, where are you?"_ Eragon called out as he made his way down to the lower level.

"_Trying to hold back more boats,"_ Saphira stated, annoyance written in her mental tone,_ "there is 20 more that are trying to close in from the mainland dock."_

"_Forget about them,"_ Eragon commanded as he punched one of the raiders that had made it to the lower deck in the chest, sending the man flying into a wall on the opposite side of the room, _"we've lost here, there are too many for us to take on we're leaving with as many dragon eggs as we can."_

"_I understand,"_ Saphira said.

"_We'll be up top in a few minutes be ready,"_ Eragon said as the two elves and the half-elf dragon rider approached the cargo compartment of the ship, not encountering another living soul below deck before reaching the place where the dragon eggs were held. When they reached it, they found two raider bodies with arrows sticking out of their necks and as they walked in blades at the ready an arrow flew by Eragon's nose by a hair's breadth before embedding itself in one of the support beams.

"Shadeslayer, what's happening?" Dimia asked as she revealed herself from behind a few barrels, bow in one hand and arrow quiver in the other. Cuaroc stood next to her, weapons drawn in his metallic hands.

"We're under attack, we need to leave now," Blödhgarm said as the ship rocked and a dragon's roar rang out.

"The Dragon eggs and Eldunarí are our top priority," Eragon stated as he opened one of the large crates holding the eggs and made sure they were safe before putting it back on, "Saphira open the deck, we're going to need an easy exit to carry the eggs out."

Soon after Eragon says this, dragon's teeth stuck through the deck above them and tore the planks free to make a large enough hole for Saphira to easily grab whatever she wanted from inside. The dragon whipped her head back for a second outside the view of those below her and spat blue flame at whoever was dumb enough to attack her flank while she worked to free the cargo from its hold.

"We need to get up there come on," Eragon stated as he started to climb through the hole.

"Shadeslayer," Blödhgarm called out to get Eragon's attention and threw the dragon rider his saddle bags.

"Thanks," Eragon nodded as he pulled his shield with the sigil of Dûrgrimst Ingeitum painted on the front from his bag and finished the climb.

The top deck was a mess of blood, water, fire, and bodies as more and more raiding vessels either docked with their kin or attached themselves to the elven ship. Most of the elves on the top deck had died between the time Eragon went down to now. The captain sat on the mast sword plunged deep into her chest to the point it was stuck in the wood, two others stood defiantly on the prow as they were quickly swarmed and three more stood on the stern using the narrow steps and high ground afforded to them to beat back the raiders but they were still being beaten down. One of the ships that had hit the elven vessel sat burning in blue fire and another sat with mast broken and most of the top deck caved in. as he watched over the carnage the others had been able to get themselves and some of the contents of the most important crates onto the deck and were currently loading them onto Saphira's back.

"_Hold them off while we load the cargo,"_ Cuaroc ordered as he gathered multiple bundles of eggs and Eldunarí and draped them across Saphira's back.

"Right," Eragon nodded and strapped his saddle bag to Saphira's saddle before taking a defensive stance between the raiders finally noticing his presence again and charging.

The first two to come up to, Eragon, weapons in hand got their heads removed from Eragon's blade before they could react properly. A third was quick enough to be able to block Eragon's downward swing with his shield before being shield bashed in the face by the Shadeslayer's own shield, caving in the man's half helmet with a sickening crunch. After he fell the rest of the raiders that were in the process of attacking stopped and circled Eragon, with the dragon rider still standing in the way of them and Saphira.

"How much longer?" Eragon called back to his companions as he watched the rest of the raiders finish off the rest of the crew and turn their eyes toward him and the dragon. They looked scared of Saphira, pretty logical if you look toward their boats. Yet they stood their ground in spite of it, he had to give them respect for that.

"We're done let's go," Blödhgarm responded as he took a seat near the middle of Saphira's back the other two not far behind.

"_Eragon, get on," _Saphira commanded as she growled at the raiders, smoke spewing from her nostrils. Eragon took off at a sprint for his saddle, as he did so the trance of fear written on the raider's faces vanished and they moved all as one. Yet they still weren't fast enough to catch up to Eragon as he mounted his post on Saphira's back and she immediately took off. Her takeoff wasn't the fastest due to the amount of weight laid upon her, allowing a few arrows to bounce harmlessly off of her body as she took higher into the air. The winds and rain helping to block arrows firing at the big blue dragon.

"Where do we go from here?" Kolmas asked as he looked back at the ships burning in the water and the friends that they had left behind.

"There is only one place to go from here," Eragon said as he set his sights on the continent in front of them.

**XXXXXXXX**

"What were we able to gather and bring with us?" Eragon asked as Kolmas, Blödhgarm, Cuaroc, and Dimia set up camp.

They had set down a few hours ago in a small clearing in the closest forest they could find, the base of a mountain worked pretty well to keep them covered for now but it wouldn't keep them concealed for long. Eragon had just finished laying wards that would alert them of any incoming movement within a good 30 meters and decided to rest for what time he could now. None of them fully trusting the lands they found themselves in so they kept what little weapons they brought with them close at hand and stayed as close as possible to each other.

"A bow, one full quiver of arrows, two threadbare cloaks, a couple of bushels of fruits and vegetables, a scrying mirror, 20 eggs, four Eldunarí and whatever you have in your saddle bag," Blödhgarm sighed, scratching his blue-furred cheek to try and clear some dried blood from his fur.

"We were only able to get that little?" Eragon asked, his heart dropping in despair.

"We were able to ward the rest enough to make sure that our attackers can't get to them," Curaroc stated to alleviate some of Eragon's worries.

"The food can probably last us a day and we can easily live off the land using spells but we will eventually be found," Dimia stated as she finished running through another inspection of their food supply.

"Agreed," Eragon sighed, "it would be good to find the monarch of these lands and at least attempt to get help with getting the ship back."

"Useless without a crew to sail it," Cuaroc shot the idea down, "but we do need to secure the test of the eggs."

"Well, we need to find out what exactly we've been pulled into and what the current state of affairs is, so we run the possibility of surviving in this land," Eragon pointed out.

"True, but first we need to get word back to Alagaësia so we can get back," Dimia stated.

"I'm not leaving, even when we get the eggs back," Eragon said, "at least not until I have an answer to my vision."

"Vision?" Blödhgarm asked, "what did you see?"

"A wall made of ice that reached into the clouds, a snowstorm of a like I've never seen before and a crumbling castle with signs of severe combat," Eragon shivered at the memory slightly, remembering the ungodly bite of cold he felt while there.

"This is not good," Blödhgarm said as he watched the trees around them, "I'm here for you by oath, Shadeslayer."

"I'm going to tell Arya what happened, she'll need to know and be ready for when we need her," Eragon said as he walked over and took the bag holding the scrying mirror and sat with his back to Saphira, repeating the words 'draumr kópa' and visualizing the Elf Queen as he did so.

As the spell worked its way through the glass, he caught the glimpse of the open starlit sky before the green eye of Fírnen entered the view to look down on him curiously. The dragon stared at him for a minute before the image shook as if a person was picking it up and the tired and the somewhat irritated face of Arya replaced it. Her hair was frizzed from rolling around in her bed if Eragon was correct and her emerald green eyes immediately changed from annoyance to surprise and lastly to fall on cheerful as a small smile adorned her face. Arya immediately tried to fix her hair into something more presentable. When she spotted the blood and grime on Eragon's face, she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Eragon, what happened?" Arya asked, worry now marred her elven features and voice, "are you okay?"

"I'm alive," Eragon soothed Arya the best way he could through his voice, using her true name in a hushed tone only for her ear to hear, and informed her of what happened, the new continent and of his vision.

"You want me to stay back while you could possibly get yourself killed?" Arya said in a hushed tone, flabbergasted.

"No, if we are going to deal with this possible threat properly then, I'm going to need you to find Murtagh," Eragon clarified, "we'll need all the dragon riders we can get our hands on."

"Okay, what about you?" Arya asked.

"Recon and to see what is exactly going on here," Eragon answered, "I don't want you bringing armies to attempt to stop a calamity that might or might not happen. I'll speak to you again in a month or sooner if anything comes up."

"Okay," Arya sighed in understanding, both dragon riders repeated each other's true name before Eragon dispelled the mirror and leaned back against Sahira's side to get some sleep.

**XXXXXXXX**

**So the Ironborn are being assholes right from the get-go... like usual. At least Eragon was able to save a couple of friends, some of the eggs and the Eldunarí so that was a plus. What will happen next? I don't know, because like Jon Snow I know nothing. You'll figure out what happens next when the sun rises in the West and sets in the East, and when the mountains blow like leaves in the wind. Joking and witch prophecies aside, thank you all for reading this story. Don't forget to review what you thought about this. **

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**Is it bad that I'm fearing the reviews to come?**


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome to Westeros

**Wow, I did not expect that well of a reception in the reviews after posting that first chapter. Thank you, to those of you that have reviewed and are now currently following this little side project. On the whole lack of magic being used against the Ironborn during the last chapter's fight, I'm sorry that they didn't use them. It was one of those things that completely slipped my mind and I've since revisited the Inheritance Cycle books and studied multiple wikis to refresh my knowledge of Christopher Paolini's more than broken high magic system. I've also slightly edited the first chapter to fix what I forgot to put in.**

**XXXXXXXX**

Eragon, Saphira, Kolmas, Blödhgarm, and Dimia woke up early, as the sun started cresting over the trees. Cuaroc had watched over them all while they rested. The metal half dragon, half humanoid Eldunarí not truly needing any rest due to his body's magic-infused nature drawing very small amounts of power from his heart of hearts. From what Cuaroc had seen, there was no real intrusion from anything throughout the night, only the stray deer passing through and usually away from the dragon held clearing as soon as they stumbled upon the blue dragon in slumber.

"Who is going with you while you travel on the ground?" Blödhgarm asked as all the humanoid organic beings in the camp finished eating a meager helping of fruits and nuts for their morning meal.

The party had decided to ration what little food they had until they found a better source of nourishment or were able to make contact with the local governing body. Saphira wasn't counted in the group due to having set out hunting as stealthily as she could on the mountain range close by and hopefully do some advanced scouting about an hour before the rest of the party had woken. From Saphira's conversation with Eragon when he woke up, she stated that she should be on her way back in little over a minute from what she had told Eragon.

From what she had relayed, the lands beyond their camp in the forest clearing were full of nothing but ashen valleys with some living patches of grassland and sparsely forested areas around a minor stream. A road was marked out about two miles to the South running East to West. A large port and several keeps laid in the West and the burned valleys were in the more inland area.

"Kolmas will be with me on the ground," Eragon replied and at the quizzical stare Blödhgarm gave him he elaborated, "from what little we've seen of the people in this land, they seem at least primarily human."

"_So you want to take the most human among us with you so you don't gather attention?"_ Saphira guessed as she landed next to the eggs and Eldunarí and curled her body around the pile of bags.

"No, not exactly," Eragon shrugged as he walked over to one of the sacks holding the Eldunarí and reached over her tail to pull a golden one out, "I'm giving the rest of you the task of protecting the eggs and most of the Eldunarí in ower possession. Glaedr will be coming with the ground party to assist with anything we might need, whether it be for council, or to help with a particularly complicated spell."

"_I'll do what I can,"_ Glaedr said, projecting his response to everyone in the clearing.

"The rest of you will stay with, Saphira. Protect her and her cargo," Eragon continued as he placed Glaedr into his travel bag, containing a small assortment of food and an extra pair of clothes, "any questions?"

"What will you be doing?" Blödhgarm asked curiously.

"It's obvious that this place is in the middle of a bloody war so we'll be getting some attention, gather more detailed information, heal the lands that have been burned and cure the afflicted," the young Dragon Rider clarified, "so I'll be doing my job, protecting the realms and if we're lucky, one of the factions will seek us out."

"That is a very dangerous plan, Shadeslayer," Kolmas commented, "what happens if the faction that finds us wants us dead?"

"We're damned if we do, and damned if we don't," Eragon said as he fidgeted with Aren, his family ring, feeling the power he'd spent the last year and month after the war against Galbatorix refilling, "it's either we do this, saving many lives in the process or we all hide long enough for those in Alagaësia to send a fleet to get us home and uncountable amounts of good, innocent people die in whatever is happening or will happen. I for one would sleep a lot better trying to help than sitting on the sidelines."

"Hard to argue with that," Dimia muttered as she checked the string of her bow.

"I wish you luck in what's to come," Blödhgarm nodded his head toward Eragon.

"Don't fret much, once I have us established here with one faction or another, you can show yourselves," Eragon affirmed, "it'll be impossible to hide Saphira and the rest of you for long anyway."

"_What's that supposed to mean,"_ Saphira huffed, tilting her head up to focus an eye on her rider.

"You've gotten much larger and I don't think you can hide in the forests and mountains of this land like you used to do in Carvahall," Eragon stated as he slung his bag over his shoulder and draped one of the cloaks across his back, lifting up the hood high enough to obscure his features slightly, "come, we have much traveling to do before night falls."

**XXXXXXXX**

Eragon and Kolmas spent the next three days traveling eastward along the major road that Saphira had pointed out. The lands were much worse for wear than Saphira had said they were and healing it consumed great quantities from their magic reserves. The blue gem in Brisingr was depleted of energy by the second day before nightfall.

There were few villages or farmhouses along the road, most of them having been put to the torch long before Eragon arrived in the area, leaving behind only smoking ruins if even that. For the buildings that still stood in any livable state, they consisted mostly of the odd farm or windmill and that was only because they were made of stone.

"HELP!" a group of three people ran from the treeline to the left, next to the road Eragon and Kolmas walked.

The group of three consisted of one older male around his late 30's, bleeding badly from an arrow in his lower thigh. In his arms, a young boy of no more than three or four crying in fear of what was chasing them or from the burned skin of his left arm hangs by his side. A female of about the same age as the man hobbled along with them trying to keep up. Her dress was torn, bloody and caked mud like she had tripped in a river or something of that nature while they had run. As soon as the older man spotted them he stopped, the woman falling in to hide behind what was obviously her husband. The older man looked from Eragon who stood completely still to Kolmas who had his hand on his sword, undrawn from his scabbard.

"_Easy now, Kolmas, remove your hand from your weapon," _Eragon ordered after touching Kolmas' mind. The elf did as he was told but kept a trained eye on the three strangers.

"Who do you fight for?" the older man spoke first, allowing Eragon to know which language he spoke, "Lannister or Stark."

"Nether, good sir," Eragon answered the man's question, holding his hands away from his sides and blade, "do you need healing? We are skilled in lesser wounds like those."

The older man pondered the question for a second, not really wanting to trust the armed strangers in front of them. He looked down toward his son, crying and clutching at his chest in fear and pain before turning his gaze back toward Eragon with a desperate hope in his eyes.

"Yes," the man sighed as he felt his strength finally starting to leave his being.

Eragon looked to Kolmas and nodded before approaching the scared family. It took Eragon and company a few minutes to backtrack to one of the windmills they'd spotted before they had gotten to work on helping the poor souls they'd come across. The trip was taken in complete silence, Eragon not knowing exactly what to say to these people, Kolmas staying silent due to not knowing human tongue, and the family most likely not knowing if they could trust Eragon on his word or not.

"We should be safe here for now," Eragon stated as he motioned for the two parents to sit down, "which one of you wants to go first?"

"What do you plan to do?" the female asked as she brought her knees to her chest and huddled into herself.

"Heal you," Eragon shrugged.

"Don't you mean bandage?" the male asked this time, perplexed by Eragon's words.

"Well it's more like I'm sealing the wounds with magic," Eragon clarified only to get more confused looks from the two but the child's glance was different, a little bit of pain and childish wonder in his eyes, "I swear it won't hurt, it might itch but won't actually hurt you."

"What should we do?"... "I don't know, I can't run anymore we need to give him the benefit of the doubt not like it could hurt us anymore than we already are." The two adults looked to each other and spoke quietly thinking that Eragon couldn't hear them before looking back to him.

"Okay, I'll go first," the male said sitting his child down and failing to stand back to his feet, "just to make sure this isn't a scam."

"Understandable," Eragon nodded, remembering when he didn't think magic was real. He moved to kneel next to the older man, removing the arrow carefully by pushing it through the other side of the leg. The man grunted in pain as the arrow left his body and Eragon rolled the pant leg up enough to see the wound. He lifted his gedwëy ignasia speaking the words "waíse heill" as he did so, making the older man's eyes grow wide as he saw the wound close and disappear completely from his leg.

"By the seven," the older man gasped as felt his leg, finding nothing, not even a scar, only smooth skin under his fingers, "what's your name boy?"

"Eragon," the Dragon Rider stated as he looked over the area where an arrow wound once sat.

"I've never seen anything like this, where do you come from?"

"The far west, you wouldn't know it," Eragon answered and continued speaking before the man could ask anything else, "far beyond your western coast."

Eragon stood and walked over to the mother and child. The woman seemed to be fine, only a few scrapes and bruises on her person. The child, on the other hand, was in a sorry state and Eragon was astonished he was still awake. His arm up to the shoulder was completely burned and looked to have a growing infection of dark pus spreading from his elbow joint up and down his arm.

"Who would do this to a child?" Eragon asked in pity of the young lad he was examining.

"Lannisters tried to burn us with our house because we barred the door and would have killed us if our oldest didn't sacrifice himself to buy us time to run for the tree line," the mother explained, "they've been hunting us ever since."

"How long ago was this?" Eragon questioned in disgust.

"Two days ago," the mother clarified.

"_Kolmas, I need your help with this one,"_ Eragon commanded in the ancient language as he placed his gedwëy ignasia against the boy's arm at the elbow, making the poor lad whimper as the dragon rider looked to the boy's mother, "hold him, he's going to want to squirm."

Kolmas immediately sat beside Eragon and both started to chant healing fraises in the ancient language. The boy immediately started squirming as the pus drained out of his arm like a keg with a hole punched in it. The only thing keeping the boy from scratching at it is his mother who had pinned his good hand between her front and his side, and was hugging him tightly as she watched her baby boy's mangled arm start shifting from burned, rotting meat to a withered, scarred thing with a slight pinkish color and back to the color and shape of a healthy human arm as the healing process to hold.

"It tickles," the boy laughed as the healing process finished and his mother held him even tighter as if she was about to lose him again.

"What is that language you speak?" the father asked, coming over after the two had stopped their singing, "I've never heard anything like it before."

"It's the language of magic from my homeland, its name is long forgotten and buried in time," Eragon explained with a smile.

"It is no magic it's the blessings of the gods," the mother cried with joy as she watched her son's formerly burned, rotting, crippled arm start moving, good as new once again. The merriment was cut short however when the family of three grew pale at the sounds of dogs barking around the building they were in.

"_Shadeslayer,"_ Kolmas called out to get Eragon's attention, _"there are more humans outside. A hunting party of ten with plate armor and red cloaks."_

Eragon stood and walked over to stand next to Kolmas, hand on Brisingr as he peeked out the shattered window. True enough, ten armored forms on horseback surrounded the windmill, steel swords in hand. Four bloodhounds were with them, all the dogs stood snarling as they faced the front door.

"Come out in the name of King Joffrey Baratheon!" the lead soldier commanded in a grizzled tone, "or we will torch you out!"

Eragon looked toward the family that he'd just healed, probing their minds with the utmost care not to let them know or hurt them to see what exactly was going on. Finding nothing but fear and confusion for why they were being hunted the dragon rider looked back out the window at the clearly bloodthirsty soldiers preparing to make true on their threats. Eragon nodded to Kolmas to get him away from the window and made a gesture for the family to be quiet and don't move.

As one Eragon and Kolmas stepped out of the windmill, hands at their sides, their cloaks hiding their faces and weapons from view. When they stepped out Eragon shot into the minds of the bloodhounds to make them mellow out and calm down. The soldiers looked slightly perplexed as their hunting dogs sat down quietly where they once were snarling and mad.

"Good morning," Eragon spoke as cheery as he could muster while he stepped forward, "what do you want from us?"

"Have you spotted a group of three, coming this way?" the lead soldier inquisitioned, a nasty scowl present on his features, "they are suspected of treason and for suspected affiliation with the Brotherhood Without Banners."

"I can't say I have," Eragon lied, as he looked at the man's face, it was easy enough to tell that the soldier didn't believe him to an extent, "we have just woken up after a long march on foot the last couple days."

"Where are you heading?" the lead soldier asked.

"East, we are adventures from across your western sea a-"

"Yeah right, if you're from beyond the Sunset Sea then I'm the bloody Lord of Casterly Rock," a different soldier snickered, cutting Eragon's explanation off.

"Lord Tywin will want to speak with them if they are from across the Sunset Sea," a soldier next to his leader spoke up.

"And if their not?" one that mocked Eragon asked as he rolled his eyes.

"The Mountain will have fun interrogating them," one next to his leader shrugged.

"Fine," the leader of the band of soldiers sighed and looked toward the one who suggested taking them to this Lord Tywin, "you will escort them there, the rest of us will continue to hunt those traitors."

The nine other riders set off back down the road, their dogs following behind them. This left only Eragon, Kolmas and the soldier instructed to bring them to his lord. Inside Eragon's mind, he breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the family within the windmill would survive for a little while longer. The soldier spurred his horse to trot in the opposite direction from the road his companions had traveled.

"If I may ask, why is the land burned?" Eragon asked walking on the left side of the soldier's horse, Kolmas falling in line behind him.

"You've arrived during the War of the Five Kings, the burning is Lord Tywin's hand. It used to be a much prettier place," the soldier clarified, "Lord Tywin is trying to starve out the false King in the North Robb Stark or as his people call him 'The Young Wolf' and his armies."

"Is this 'Lord Tywin' a king two?" Eragon asked perplexed with the name of this war, _a war of five kings, what kind of madness did we stumble across?_

The soldier laughed at the question before turning his head toward Eragon, "no he's Warden of the West and King Joffrey's grandfather, you would have at least known that if you had landed in Lannisport when you started your travels."

"Well then we missed out, we were attacked by raiders and ended up washing ashore three days march back that way along the river," Eragon stated as he pointed his finger back the way that they'd come from, "been walking ever since."

"Dreadful times," the soldier sighed as he scratched his small growth of a beard, "it's a damn shame when you can't go any direction without someone wanting to slit your throat."

"Agreed," Eragon nodded.

"What's your name anyway, if you don't mind me asking?" the soldier asked.

"I'm, Eragon," the dragon rider said and turned his head toward his elf friend, "he's Kolmas, doesn't speak our tongue but understands it. You?"

"Ser Edward, I'm a hedge knight currently in service to House Lannister," Edward stated gesturing to the red cloak he wore on his shoulders, "oh, by the way, welcome to Westeros."

**XXXXXXXX**

**As I wrote this chapter I've kept bouncing between setting this story within the range of a little before the Battle of Blackwater Bay and passed the events of the Red Wedding. I swear that I've written at least 10 different outcomes for this chapter alone to make sure that things fit and make sense in a logical way and thought up a good 50 that I never put down on paper. No wonder Martin hasn't finished writing The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring yet if it's this hard to work one character to fit into certain events than it would be downright impossible to do it with a total of 35+ characters.**


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